People undergo various stress everyday. People intend to escape stress, but this task is nearly impossible. To prevent stress from building up, various activities such as sleeping, overeating, exercise, smoking, etc. are conducted. Drinking is also included in such activities.
Due to frequent dining and receptions, occasions to drink are increasing. However, people suffer from side effects of drinking after continuous drinking. Such side effects of drinking include a heavy feeling in the head, a headache, a pain in one's insides and a parched mouth. These symptoms are referred to as a katzenjammer. A katzenjammer results from toxic action of ethanol or acetaldehyde. When the toxic action of ethanol or acetaldehyde lasts, fatigue, abdominal distension, emesis, etc. occur.
In normal metabolism of ethylalcohol, ethylalcohol introduced into the body is absorbed by the stomach or the small intestines and transferred to the liver through blood vessels. Liver cells have alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) which oxidizes alcohol to produce acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is metabolized to produce acetic acid by acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) in liver cells and transferred to muscles or fat tissue throughout the whole body, and is finally decomposed to carbon oxide and water. The ALDH is divided into ALDH type II, which initiates oxidation even in a low concentration of acetaldehyde, and ALDH type I, which does not function in a low concentration of acetaldehyde. Since Eastern people are generally deficient in ALDH (II), the oxidation of acetaldehyde is slower in Eastern people than in Western people. Non-oxidized acetaldehyde and/or ethanol interfere with the normal metabolism, thereby causing various katzenjammer symptoms.
Meanwhile, ethanol is a main ingredient of alcoholic drink and physically and mentally affects the human body. Thus, the metabolism and toxicity of ethanol have been broadly studied. Intaken ethanol is absorbed by digestive tracts including the small between 20 and 120 minutes after drinking. The absorbed ethanol is metabolized in all organs including the liver. About 10% of the absorbed ethanol is excreted through the breath, perspiration, or urination and most of the remaining portion is decomposed in the liver.
The decomposition process of ethanol in liver includes conversion of ethanol into acetaldehyde through an oxidation reaction. It is known that this decomposition is carried out by three reaction enzyme systems including ADH, microsomal ethanol-oxidizing system (MEOS) and catalase (K. Ebihara et al., Agri. Biol. Chem., 52, 1311, 1988)
In addition to the decomposition mechanism of ethanol, toxicity of ethanol has also been researched. It is reported that the toxicity of ethanol is neurologically observed and induces genetic effects (J. Caballeria, et al., Life Sci., 41, 1021-1727, 1986).
Recently, many substances capable of reducing the toxicity of ethanol or preventing the expression of toxicity have been studied. In this connection, natural foods and health-aid foods containing extracts of herbal raw materials are being developed (Jung Han Kim et al., Journal of Korean Society of Agricultural Chemistry and Biotechnology, 38(6), 549-553, 1995).
As a result, compositions containing cholic acids which are widely used as cholelitholytics are commercially available. Cholic acids include ursodeoxycholic acid having a choleretic function, a liver detoxification function, a function to improve liver blood flow, a function to promote fat absorption, and a function to excrete waste materials through microbiliary tracts, thereby improving the liver-function of patients with chronic liver disease, and affecting general malaise, dyspepsia, anorexia, physical fatigue, etc. due to liver-function disorder; tauroursodeoxycholic acid, which is commercially available as cholelitholytics and is reported to treat fatty liver by improving the liver-function and reducing the amount of fat in the liver after being orally administered; chenodeoxycholic acid commercially available as cholelitholytics; dehydrocholic acid, etc.
Medicaments containing Ginseng Radix, sibberian ginseng (gasiogapi) or the like, which are known to be useful in Chinese medicaments and folk remedies for removing a katzenjammer, as a main ingredient have been developed in various forms. Many tonic drinks comprising Ginseng Radix as a main ingredient are commercially available and compositions comprising various ingredients such as honey, vitamins, etc., are commercially available as tonics. Although herbs such as Ginseng Radix, sibberian ginseng (Brekhman, Pharmacological investigation of glycosides from Ginseng and Eleutherococcus, Lloydia, volume 32, 46-51, 1969), Ocimum Sanctum Linn and Tinosporamalabarica (Sen, P., Maiti, P C and Ray, A. Mechanism of anti-stress activity of Linn, eugenol and in experimental animals, Indian J. Exp. biol., 30, 592-596, 1992), and biomaterials such as melatonin are reported to have an effect of removing a katzenjammer, they remove only some changes induced by drinking or their treatment effect is insignificant. The medicaments have no technical development in that conventional herb extracts are used. Most are used only as tonics and are developed from only known effects of ingredients.
As described above, various herbs have been used for removing a katzenjammer after drinking and various drinks containing herbs have recently become commercially available. Such drinks are taken alone after drinking or added to alcoholic drink having high alcohol content before drinking. However, some drinks containing herbs sometimes induce general malaise, abdominal distension, emesis or abdominal pain are expensive due to the inclusion of expensive herbs.
Thus, there is a need for a composition for effectively removing katzenjammer, in particular, a composition for removing a katzenjammer in which herb extracts are properly formulated to exert good effects in the prevention or treatment of a katzenjammer and excellent liver-protection are required.
The present inventors studied herbs having good effects in the prevention and treatment of a katzenjammer and discovered that each extract of Rosa roxburghii, Engelhardtia chrysolepis HANCE and Nelumbo nucifera has effects of preventing and treating a katzenjammer and a composition comprising these ingredients in proper amounts has excellent effects of preventing and treating a katzenj ammer.
Rosa roxburghii is a plant belonging to Rosaceae and is also called a sweet chestnut rose. Rosa roxburghii is distributed in eastern Asia, China, Himalaya, etc., and its fruit and seeds are edible. It has been used as a food for health aid and beauty in Guizhou province in China and as a beverage for preventing ageing, freckles and wrinkles in Japan due to its enriched vitamin and potent superoxide dismutase activity.
Korean Patent Publication No. 2000-0021322 discloses a stress releasing drink comprising a rose extract. The stress releasing drink contains a rose fruit extract, extracted with ethanol/1,3-butyleneglycol/purified water in the ratio of 7/1/3 (v/v/v), as a main ingredient and 10 kinds of food additives including soybean germ, bamboo shoots, etc. This drink effectively inhibits the generation of active oxygen such as the superoxide radical (O2.) and the hydroxy radical (.OH), which promote ageing, and removes the resulting active oxygen. When a drink containing 0.1% of the rose extract is administered, MHPG-SO4 and corticosterone, which is increased due to physical and mental stress, are reduced by 17% and 25%, respectively, compared to when the drink is not administered. When a drink containing 0.5% of the rose extract is administered, MHPG-SO4 and corticosterone are reduced by 20% and 38%, respectively.
Engelhardtia chrysolepis HANCE is a plant belonging to Juglandaceae and is generally called Taiwan engelhardtia. Engelhardtia chrysolepis HANCE is distributed in south and southwest districts in China and its leaf is edible. It has sweet taste, and thus has been used to produce a sweet tea and a health aid tea in China for many centuries. In Japan, it is called Kohki tea and is drunk in the form of a drink or a tea.
Nelumbo nucifera belongs to Nymphaeaceae and is called a lotus flower. It mainly grows for aesthetics in lotus ponds in middle and lower districts in Korea and is distributed in India, China, Japan and Siberia. Its leaf, fruit, rhizoma and seed are edible. The seed, Nelumbines Semen is effective as a tonic and a sedative, and in invigorating the spleen and has an antidiarrhetic function, calms and nourishes the spirit, and prevents long-term diarrhea, nocturnal emission, morbid leukorrhea, palpitation and insomnia. The leaf has an antipyretic or detoxification function. The fruit is effective as a tonic and a hemostatic, and in the treatment of nocturnal enuresis and women's diseases. The root is useful for antipyresis and detoxification, removing stagnant blood, and treating blood problems, hematuria, and enterorrhagia and hemostasis.
Korean Patent Publication No. 2004-0026175 discloses an analgesic comprising Nelumbo nucifera as an effective ingredient, which may alleviate general pain as well as pain due to damage to nerves.
Korean Patent Publication No. 2003-0079104 discloses a Nelumbo nucifera extract for treating depression, a method of preparing the same, a pharmaceutical composition and a health food comprising the extract. More particularly, the Nelumbo nucifera extract extracted using alcohol or an aqueous alcohol solution shows a potent antidepressant action and ensures safety as a natural medicament, and thus can be useful as a composition for treating depression and as a health food.
Korean Patent Publication No. 2003-0031729 discloses a Nelumbo nucifera extract for protecting hepatocyte and preventing and treating hepatic damage, and a composition for protecting hepatocyte, preventing and treating hepatic damage, and inhibiting mutation by a hepatoma inducing material comprising the extract as an effective ingredient.